It has large concentrations of an opiate called casein–it’s literally like a hit of morphine, giving a calming effect (meant for nursing infant cows).

So, next time you find yourself hovering around the cheese tray, just think of yourself fastened to a morphine drip. Except, it’s also making you fatter.

Cheese is one of the absolute worse foods for our health. It has ten times the saturated fat as meat.

It’s critical to stay away, folks.

So, what’s a cheese-avoiding- (but-missing-desperately-) nutritarian to do? How about make an absolutely delicious plant-based cheese sauce instead? Sound good?

I get it if you’re skeptical at first–I mean you are a cheese addict after all 🙂

Why don’t you check out this quick how-to video to get you jazzed up for all the cheese-sauce-goodness to come:

I hope you’re inspired to give this whole dairy-free-cheese-sauce-thing a try after that video! Because this recipe is a serious game-changer when you’re just starting out in this lifestyle and something you’re going to want handy in your arsenal of hey!-this-actually-tastes-good nutritarian recipes!

Let’s Make All the Good Things Better

I’ve talked about this a lot before but it’s a point that begs to be re-emphasized at every turn:

Sauces and dressings will make or break your compliance to this lifestyle.

As a nutritarian we aim to eat 1 pound raw and 1 pound cooked veggies daily. For the average person just starting out that going from likely very little veggie intake to a whole lot of veggies. And to make that massively-good-for-you transition to a high-veg, high-nutrient lifestyle you have to have an arsenal of health-promoting sauces, dressings, dips and spreads.

That means condiments that don’t have refined oils, don’t have loads of added sodium and offer the flavor you need to eat BIG.

If you want to know the crowning jewel of nutritarian sauces in my life, it’s this cheese sauce right here.

7 Simple (and Unexpected) Ingredients

The simple ingredients above don’t look like they’re going to make anything even resembling cheese. I know, I know…

Have a little faith. I promise when you taste this sauce you’re going to be a plant-based-cheese-believer!

But let’s temper those cheese-spectations for a hot minute.

Because if you’re coming off a serious SAD (Standard American Diet) and used to having dairy cheese daily, this No-Soak Nutritarian Cheese Sauce isn’t going to hit those same buttons in your brain.

And that’s okay.

If it makes you mad to think of this as a “cheese” sauce, then just think of it as a really tasty “red pepper sauce” until you have so many cheese-less days stacked behind you that you really can love hard on what this cheese sauce (er, I mean red pepper sauce) brings to the table!

You’ll get there!

The Beauty of Not Having to Soak Your Nuts

This fact right here is what sets this vegan cheese sauce apart from others of its kind. Because we don’t always have the time or the foresight to soak our cashews or almonds (yes, either can work in this recipe). All you need to make this cheese sauce happen are a few pantry staples, some lemon juice and s few spices.

You’re going to need a high-speed blender.

It takes about 3 to 4 minutes of blending time, till the sauce is slightly heated and you can see light steam coming out of the top. That’s the trade off for not pre-soaking your nuts–a longer blend time.

It ends up with this gorgeous bright orange color–from the roasted red peppers. If you add more peppers, it gets more orange, and vice versa.

I happen to love the flavor from the roasted red peppers (I use these from Trader Joe’s), but if you’re not a fan, stick to the lower recommendation of 1/4th cup.

Nutritarian Cashew Cheese Sauce

Curb your cheese cravings while you're on Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live plan with this delicious plant-based, no oil, no-added-salt, vegan cheese sauce!

Course
Sauce

Cuisine
American, Mexican

Prep Time1minute

Cook Time4minutes

Total Time5minutes

Servings81/4 cup servings

AuthorKristen Hong

Ingredients

1cupwater

1/2cupraw cashews or raw almonds(no soaking required)

1/4 cup + 2tbspnutritional yeast

1/4 to 1/2cuproasted red peppers

1tbsplemon juice

1tsponion powder

1/2tspgarlic powder

Instructions

Decide on your level of red peppers: Minimum recommendation is 1/4 cup. I personally like my sauce brighter with more red pepper flavor so I use 1/2 cup. Make sure you drain and rinse the peppers well.

Place all the ingredients in your high-speed blender and secure lid. Make sure to use your hot soup lid that allows steam to escape.

Hi, I’m Kristen! I adopted a nutritarian lifestyle over six years ago and I've been sharing my experiences ever since. I’ve found that a successful life stems from eating to live and it’s my mission to make this lifestyle doable for everyone who’s ready to end their issues with troubled eating, weight gain and food-related disease!

Many of the links on this blog are affiliate links. Hello Nutritarian receives a small commission when certain items are purchased, but the price is the same for you. For more details, view my privacy policy here.

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Discussion

Hello! I was just stumbling across your entire website and I preparing to start my nutritarian journey when I realized I had a couple questions. Are your recipes and prep adjusted for one person since you are the only person in your family following the lifestyle? If not, how can this be adjusted for a 1-2 person household. Also to follow-up on the 1-2 person household thing, will the recipes and prep still work with a Vitamix Standard (7 x 8.8 x 20in) blender? Thank you!

My sample prep plan on The Eat to Live Food Prep Guide is for one person. This cheese recipe works for the week depending on what you’re using it for!

If you want to prep for more people you can just double recipes–but most of them can serve two people–this would be if you wanted to batch cook for the week for 2 people.

Any Vitamix will work–you just want to get those creamy sauces and smoothies!

My best advice for batch prepping is to give it a trial run of a week to see how much you will both eat for the week so you can adjust accordingly–there’s a bit a trial and error involved before you get the system to work for your situation!

Yes, this recipe does not require soaking first! You’re more than welcome to soak them if you prefer–I’ve done it both ways and it makes no difference taste or texture-wise, it’s really personal preference! The reason why not soaking works in this recipe is because the sauce is actually heated during the blending processed (it’s blended for so long that a stream of steam forms).

Just made this cheese sauce ! Followed the recipe exactly but it was a bit thin…so added 2 heaping tsp of ground chia seed and blended for another few seconds. Simply divine-the flavor is fantastic ! Having Organic edamame and mung bean fettuccine with cheese sauce for lunch at work tomorrow ! So awesome!!

I’ve just made this, after avoiding it for a year. I only have a cheap-o Oster blender, and I figured since it wasn’t powerful enough to make nice cream, it was going to be no match for cashews. I soaked the cashews for 72 hours in my fridge, and BAM! PERFECTION. I had to warm it up on lower setting before going full blast, and I used 3/4 c of cashews. Can’t wait for nachos tonight! Thanks for the great recipes!

I have had a bag of raw cashews in the freezer forever– yanked them out and made this– used boiling water just in case the frozen cashews would be in issue. It turned out so great– and all pantry staples and so quick!!! It was really yummy and will be a go-to — this over steamed vegetables = lifesaver 🙂

HI, Kristen, Thanks for a nutritarian cheese sauce recipe! I used to make this all the time before being a nute but the recipe included salt, which I figured would be a necessity since dairy cheese is very salty. I will give this a try with no salt and see how it tastes. Thanks again!

Yes, Dr. Furhman does not like specifically fortified nutritional yeast because it has added folic acid that can contribute to cancer. He sells an unfortified yeast on his site and you can see a link to an unfortified brand I recommend in this post: https://hellonutritarian.com/crispy-no-oil-baked-tofu-fingers/

Grab my FREE 38-page get-started plan!

Receive "The 7-Day Salad Cleanse" plan for free when you sign up for my weekly email newsletter! I share how adding more salad to your existing diet will help you get healthier and lose weight–you pick your pace and follow 4 easy rules!